


Laws Of Parsimony

by tielan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Humor, Team, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-24
Updated: 2011-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-21 17:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/227679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team is in trouble. Rodney's working on it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laws Of Parsimony

_entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem_

 _  
_

The little red numbers on the LED display were rising at alarming levels. In John's experience of little red LED numbers, this was bad - especially when they’d been doing this for the last two minutes, and when Rodney was trying to slow them down if not stop them entirely.

John was getting nervous.

"Rodney?"

"I'm working on it!"

"Forty-thousand and twenty-seven. Thirty-two... Forty-nine..."

"Yes, thank you, Ronon, I _can_ read, you know!"

“Rodney?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Teyla, I’m trying to save our lives. Again.”

“Perhaps it might be a good idea...”

“For you to shut up?”

“Rodney...” John’s eyes narrowed. Yes, Rodney was under stress and life-or-death situations made them all a little short-tempered. But that had been uncalled for. Teyla let out a small breath and stepped back, shaking her head at John with a wry smile.

John resolved to put a bug in Rodney’s ear after this. Maybe he was frustrated by his inability to solve the problem, but that wasn’t a reason to take it out on Teyla.

Rodney didn’t look up as he fingered his way across his tablet, working through subroutines too complex for anyone but him to understand. “Look, I’m trying to find a way to cut the power to the device! It seems whoever designed this initiated a feedback sequence without an exit loop - which essentially means that the power just keeps building and building until the device explodes.”

“So we take cover.”

Ronon’s suggestion was given all the due consideration of a drop of water in a furnace.

“Do you see any cover in this room? Those metal sheets won’t be enough - notice the casing on this thing? See the little cracks all over it caused by time and lack of due care? When this thing explodes - as it will in about...oh, two minutes when the power from the feedback loop grows too much for the device to hold - the casing is going to shatter, and all those little cracks will turn into the very sharp edges of a lot of shrapnel that will move at the speed of bullets and with the force of knives through butter.”

John grimaced. “So why aren’t you fixing it?”

“Hello! Working on it! I’m actually trying to reduce the power input to the device in the hope that I can at least level out the feedback loop long enough for me to get the door open.”

“Have you tried cutting the power?” Ronon turned on his heel, dreadlocks flying about his shoulders, restless at the inaction.

“Oh, and how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Rodney snapped, then paused. His eyes widened and his brows lifted. “Wait... It’s slowing. It’s stopping! But...that’s impossible! It shouldn’t just--”

There was a noise from the side of the room. All three men turned as one.

Teyla rose to her feet beside the device, holding a chunky cable-end in one hand. From the mangled look of the wires, it seemed to have been yanked directly from the wall socket. She regarded them with an inquiring look. “Has the power input levelled out the feedback loop?”

Three heads turned to look at the LED display on the device.

“I... Uh... Yes,” Rodney managed. “But-- Why didn’t you-- You should have said--”

John figured that now probably wasn’t the time to point out to Rodney that he hadn’t given Teyla the opportunity to say anything at all. Thankfully, Teyla thought the same thing.

“You now have time to get the door open,” she said, dropping the power cable on the parqueted floor with a _thunk_ that had a suspiciously smug resonance to it. “Do not let me keep you from saving our lives again, Rodney.”

Her smile was small and sweetly wicked.

 

" _All other things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best_."

 


End file.
